London-based packaging firm DS Smith plc has announced plans to sell its plastics division and is now “exploring opportunities.”

In its half-year financial statement Dec. 6, the company said following an initial review it had concluded that the business was “an attractive asset with good growth prospect.”

With £327 million ($416.6 million) in sales in the fiscal year ended April 30, the business accounts for 5 percent overall sales of the total group, according to Greg Dawson, director of corporate affairs.

The company launched a strategic review of the business in June, through which it generated “a significant amount of interest,” Dawson told Plastics News Europe on Dec. 7.

The business has been valued by the market at around £500 million ($637 million), but Dawson declined to comment.

The company treated the division as “discontinued” in its half-year financial report, covering the six months to end of October, but according to Dawson that did not mean that a sales process had begun.

“We are currently studying all the options and I can tell you that there have been a lot interested parties,” Dawson added.

DS Smith manufactures a range of flexible, rigid, foam and injection molded packaging solutions and claims to be the world leader in flexible liquid packaging and dispensing solutions for bag-in-box, with its Rapak brand.

The company has 11 flexible packaging production plants and 15 rigid packaging manufacturing sites globally, including the United States.